Nasdaq and Talos expand institutional tokenization push

Nasdaq and Talos are expanding their work in digital assets with a new integration aimed at improving how institutions manage tokenized collateral. 

Meanwhile, the plan links Nasdaq’s Calypso risk and collateral platform and its trade surveillance tools with Talos’s digital asset trading system, as firms look for smoother ways to handle tokenized assets across crypto and traditional markets.

Nasdaq and Talos said the new setup is designed to give institutional clients a more unified workflow. The integration connects execution, collateral management, risk controls and market monitoring in one structure for firms active in both traditional finance and digital assets.

On Monday, the companies said the partnership is aimed at tokenized collateral use cases that have so far faced operational barriers. Nasdaq said these barriers include the difficulty of fitting digital assets into existing collateral and risk systems used by large institutions.

Nasdaq said internal research points to about $35 billion in collateral being tied up in “corrective and non-interest-bearing measures.” The new integration is meant to reduce that friction by helping firms manage tokenized collateral more efficiently across different asset classes.

Talos chief executive Anton Katz said, 

”The evolution toward tokenized collateral is a natural progression for institutional capital markets.” 

He added that bringing Talos together with Nasdaq’s systems could reduce friction across onchain and offchain assets.

In addition, the integration also adds Nasdaq’s trade surveillance tools to Talos’s client workflow. That means users will be able to monitor trading activity for patterns linked to wash trading, spoofing and layering across the venues they access.

That focus comes as digital asset markets continue to face questions around market integrity. Nasdaq said the combined system is intended to bring “institutional-grade” compliance standards into workflows used for tokenized collateral and digital asset trading.

Tokenization push continues across large firms

The Nasdaq-Talos move comes as larger financial groups keep building tokenization tools for institutions. In BlackRock’s 2026 chairman’s letter, Larry Fink wrote that tokenization could help modernize market infrastructure by making investments easier to issue, trade and access.

Other firms are also building collateral programs around tokenized assets. Franklin Templeton said in February that eligible institutions can use tokenized money market fund shares as off-exchange collateral in digital markets, showing that large firms are moving beyond pilots into live institutional products.